Winner of the 2024 Dorothy Hewett Award
Time. Memory. Mirror. Past & Parallel Lives is a rippling reflection on being alien, queer, and other. These poems yearn for home and belonging after migration, religion, and coming out. Kaya Ortiz’s award-winning debut shines with authenticity – this is a courageous departure from a past life, towards a queer future and a poetic return to self.
“A gentle and powerful urge to believe in a world where becoming is just as beautiful as arriving.”
– Madison Godfrey
“Brimming with incantatory power, Past & Parallel Lives is a luminous contribution to queer Filipino poetics.” – Eunice Andrada
“This collection is a marvel, a miracle. By leaning into the past, Ortiz propels us into a future radiant with queer joy. This book is essential and a must-read.” – Scott-Patrick Mitchell
Read the reviews
Aniko Press Review of Past & Parallel Lives
“If time were a glass pane, then this is a poetry collection that takes time and shatters it against the wall, decorating the floor with a mosaic of could-have-beens. It is like looking directly into a fractured mirror – both revelatory and dazzling in its disarray.”
– Samantha Haran
Elephant Page Publishing Review of Past & Parallel Lives
“Ortiz depicts desire as a religion that knows no bounds – not gender, not location, not species. Through references to Star Trek, Ortiz shows how the expectations of Earth (white, cis, heterosexual) make aliens out of normalcy.” – Sarah Birch
Uplift Poetry Review of Past & Parallel Lives
“I was deeply moved by this collection and Ortiz’s ability to write from different stages of life. Their style is incredibly dreamlike, awash with lyricism and delicate sentimentality.” – Tori Brown